What"s the lowest shot ye"ll take for that mellow mixture of Ingin and aristocracy. Send up and bring him down: let us hear the lowest dodge you"ll let him slide at."
Mr. Grabguy evinces an off-handedness in trade that is quite equal to Graspum"s keen tact. But Graspum has the faculty of preserving a disinterested appearance singularly at variance with his object.
A messenger is despatched, receipt in hand, for the boy Nicholas.
Mrs. Tuttlewell, a brusque body of some sixty years, and with thirteen in a family, having had three husbands (all gentlemen of the highest standing, and connected with first families), keeps a stylish boarding-house, exclusively for the aristocracy, common people not being competent to her style of living; and as n.o.body could ever say one word against the Tuttlewell family, the present head of the Tuttlewell house has become very fashionably distinguished. The messenger"s arrival is made known to Mrs.
Tuttlewell, who must duly consider the nature of the immediate demand. She had reason to expect the services of the children would have been at her command for some years to come. However, she must make the very best of it; they are Graspum"s property, and he can do what he pleases with them. She suggests, with great politeness, that the messenger take a seat in the lower veranda. Her house is located in a most fashionable street, and none knew better than good lady Tuttlewell herself the value of living up to a fashionable nicety; for, where slavery exists, it is a trade to live.
Both children have been "waiting on table," and, on hearing the summons, repair to their cabin in the yard. Mrs. Tuttlewell, reconsidering her former decision, thinks the messenger better follow them, seeing that he is a n.i.g.g.e.r with kindly looks. "Uncle!"
says Annette, looking up at the old Negro, as he joins them: "Don"t you want me too?"
"No," returns the man, coolly shaking his head.
"I think they must be going to take us back to the old plantation, where Daddy Bob used to sing so. Then I shall see mother-how I do want to see her!" she exclaims, her little heart bounding with ecstasy. Three years or more have pa.s.sed since she prattled on her mother"s knee.
The negro recognizes the child"s simplicity. "I on"e wants dat child; but da"h an"t gwine t" lef ye out on da plantation, nohow!"
he says.
"Not going to take us home!" she says, with a sigh. Nicholas moodily submits himself to be prepared, as Annette, more vivacious, keeps interposing with various enquiries. She would like to know where they are going to take little Nicholas; and when they will let her go and see Daddy Bob and mother? "Now, you can take me; I know you can!" she says, looking up at the messenger, and taking his hand pertly.
"No-can"t, little "un! Mus" lef" "um fo"h nuder time. You isn"t broder and sister-is ye?"
"No!" quickly replies the little girl, swinging his hand playfully; "but I want to go where he goes; I want to see mother when he does."
"Well, den, little "un (the negro sees he cannot overcome the child"s simplicity by any other means), dis child will come fo"h "um to-morrow-dat I will!"
"And you"ll bring Nicholas back-won"t you?" she enquires, grasping the messenger more firmly by the hand.
"Sartin! no mistake "bout dat, little "uman." At this she takes Nicholas by the hand, and retires to their little room in the cabin.
Here, like one of older years, she washes him, and dresses him, and fusses over him.
He is merely a child for sale; so she combs his little locks, puts on his new osnaburgs, arranges his nice white collar about his neck, and makes him look so prim. And then she ties a piece of black ribbon about his neck, giving him the bright appearance of a school-boy on examination-day. The little girl"s feelings seem as much elated as would be a mother"s at the prospect of her child gaining a medal of distinction.
"Now, Nicholas!" she whispers, with touching simplicity, as she views him from head to foot with a smile of exultation on her face, "your mother never dressed you so neat. But I like you more and more, Nicholas, because both our mothers are gone; and maybe we shall never see "um again." And she kisses him fondly,--tells him not to stay long,--to tell her all he has seen and heard about mother, when he returns.
"I don"t know, "Nette, but "pears to me we ain"t like other children-they don"t have to be sold so often; and I don"t seem to have any father."
"Neither do I; but Mrs. Tuttlewell says I mustn"t mind that, because there"s thousands just like us. And then she says we ain"t the same kind o" white folks that she is; she says we are white, but n.i.g.g.e.rs for all that. I don"t know how it is! I"m not like black folks, because I"m just as white as any white folks," she rejoins, placing her little arms round his neck and smoothing his hair with her left hand.
"I"ll grow up, one o" these days."
"And so will I," she speaks, boldly.
"And I"m goin" to know where my mother"s gone, and why I ain"t as good as other folks" white children," he rejoins sullenly, shaking his head, and muttering away to himself. It is quite evident that the many singular stages through which he is pa.s.sing, serve only to increase the stubborness of his nature. The only black distinguishable in his features are his eyes and hair; and, as he looks in the gla.s.s to confirm what he has said, Annette takes him by the hand, tells him he must not mind, now; that if he is good he shall see Franconia,--and mother, too, one of these days. He must not be pettish, she remarks, holding him by the hand like a sister whose heart glows with hope for a brother"s welfare. She gives him in charge of the messenger, saying, "Good by!" as she imprints a kiss on his cheek, its olive hues changing into deep crimson.
The negro answers her adieu with "Good by, little dear! G.o.d bless "um!" Nay, the native goodness of his heart will not permit him to leave her thus. He turns round, takes her in his arms, kisses and kisses her fair cheek. It is the truth of an honest soul, expressed with tears glistening in his eyes. Again taking Nicholas by the hand, he hastens through the pa.s.sage of Mrs. Tuttlewell"s house where, on emerging into the street, he is accosted by that very fashionable lady, who desires to know if he has got the boy "all right!" Being answered in the affirmative, she gives a very dignified-"Glad of it," and desires her compliments to Mr. Graspum, who she hopes will extend the same special regards to his family, and retires to the quietude of her richly-furnished parlour.
The gentleman dealer and his customer are waiting in the man shambles, while the negro messenger with his boy article of trade plod their way along through the busy streets. The negro looks on his charge with a smile of congratulation. "Mas"r "ll laugh all over "e clothes when he sees ye-dat he will!" he says, with an air of exultation.
"I"d like to know where I"m goin" to afore I go much further,"
returns the boy, curtly, as he walks along, every few minutes asking unanswerable questions of the negro.
"Lor, child!" returns the negro, with a significant smile, "take ye down to old ma.s.sa what own "um! Fo"h true!"
"Own me!" mutters the child, surlily. "How can they own me without owning my mother?--and I"ve no father."
"White man great "losipher; he know so much, dat n.i.g.g.e.r don"t know nofin," is the singularly significant answer.
"But G.o.d didn"t make me for a n.i.g.g.e.r,--did he?"
"Don" know how dat is, child. "Pears like old mas"r tink da" ain"t no G.o.d; and what he sees in yander good book lef "um do just as "e mind to wid n.i.g.g.e.r. Sometimes Buckra sell n.i.g.g.e.r by de pound, just like "e sell pig; and den "e say "t was wid de Lord"s will."
"If mas"r Lord be what Buckra say he be, dis child don" want t"be "quainted wid "um," he coolly dilates, as if he foresees the mournful result of the child"s bright endowments.
The negro tries to quiet the child"s apprehensions by telling him he thinks "Buckra, what"s waiting down in da"h office, gwine t" buy "um of old mas"r. Know dat Buckra he sharp feller. Get e" eye on ye, and make up "e mind what "e gwine to give fo"h "um, quicker!" says the negro.
Graspum has invited his customer, Mr. Grabguy, into his more comfortable counting-room, where, as Nicholas is led in, they may be found discussing the rights of the south, as guaranteed by the federal const.i.tution. The south claim rights independent of the north; and those rights are to secede from the wrongs of the north whenever she takes into her head the very simple notion of carrying them out. Graspum, a man of great experience, whose keen sense of justice is made keener by his sense of practical injustice,--thinks the democracy of the south was never fully understood, and that the most sure way of developing its great principles is by hanging every northerner, whose abolition mania is fast absorbing the liberties of the country at large.
"That"s the feller!" says Mr. Grabguy, as the negro leads Nicholas into his presence, and orders him to keep his hands down while the gentleman looks at him. "Stubborn sticks out some, though, I reckon," Mr. Grabguy adds, rather enthusiastically. "Absalom! Isaac!
Joe! eh? what"s your name?"
"He"s a trump!" interposes Graspum, rubbing his hands together, and giving his head a significant shake.
"Nicholas, they call me, master," answers the boy, pettishly.
Mr. Grabguy takes him by the arms, feels his muscle with great care and caution, tries the elasticity of his body by lifting him from the floor by his two ears. This is too much, which the child announces with loud screams. "Stuff! out and out," says Mr. Grabguy, patting him on the back, in a kind sort of way. At the same time he gives a look of satisfaction at Graspum.
"Everything a man wants, in that yaller skin," returns that methodical tradesman, with a gracious nod.
"Black lightnin" eyes-long wiry black hair, a skin full of Ingin devil, and a face full of stubborn," Mr. Grabguy discourses, as he contemplates the article before him.
"Well, now, about the lowest figure for him?" he continues, again looking at Graspum, and waiting his reply. That gentleman, drawing his right hand across his mouth, relieves it of the virtueless deposit, and supplies it with a fresh quid.
"Sit down, neighbour Grabguy," he says, placing a chair beside him.
They both sit down; the negro attendant stands a few feet behind them: the boy may walk a line backward and forward. "Say the word!
You know I"ll have a deal o" trouble afore breaking the feller in,"
Grabguy exclaims, impatiently.
Graspum is invoking his philosophy. He will gauge the point of value according to the coming prospect and Mr. Grabguy"s wants. "Well, now, seeing it"s you, and taking the large amount of negro property I have sold to your distinguished father into consideration-I hope to sell forty thousand n.i.g.g.e.rs yet, before I die-he should bring six hundred." Graspum lays his left hand modestly on Mr. Grabguy"s right arm, as that gentleman rather starts with surprise. "Take the extraordinary qualities into consideration, my friend; he"s got a head what"s worth two hundred dollars more nor a common n.i.g.g.e.r,--that is, if you be going to turn it into knowledge profit. But that wasn"t just what I was going to say" (Graspum becomes profound, as he spreads himself back in his chair). "I was going to say, I"d let you-you mustn"t whisper it, though-have him for five hundred and twenty; and he"s as cheap at that as bull-dogs at five dollars."
Grabguy shakes his head: he thinks the price rather beyond his mark.
He, however, has no objection to chalking on the figure; and as both are good democrats, they will split the difference.
Graspum, smiling, touches his customer significantly with his elbow.
"I never do business after that model," he says. "Speaking of bull-dogs, why, Lord bless your soul, Sam Beals and me traded t"other day: I gin him a young five-year old n.i.g.g.e.r for his hound, and two hundred dollars to boot. Can"t go five hundred and twenty for that imp, nohow! Could o" got a prime n.i.g.g.e.r for that, two years ago."
"Wouldn"t lower a fraction! He"s extraordinary prime, and"ll increase fifty dollars a year every year for ten years or more."
Mr. Grabguy can"t help that: he is merely in search of an article capable of being turned into a mechanic, or professional man,--anything to suit the exigencies of a free country, in which such things are sold. And as it will require much time to get the article to a point where it"ll be sure to turn the pennies back, perhaps he"d as well let it alone: so he turns the matter over in his head. And yet, there is a certain something about the "young imp" that really fascinates him; his keen eye, and deep sense of n.i.g.g.e.r natur" value, detect the wonderful promise the article holds forth.